Rocky Johnson who is Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s father is going to star in his own biopic.
Rocky Johnson is a retired professional wrestler whose dramatic life story has inspired independent filmmakers Jonathan and Justin Gajewski to chronicle his journey from Canada to the wrestling rings of the United States.
Looking forward to the project, Jonathan and Justin told The Hollywood Reporter, “We are very excited to bring Rocky Johnson’s incredible story to the world.”
Rocky – whose real-life name is Wayde Bowles – was born in Nova Scotia, Canada, and began his wrestling career in 1964, when he started to appear in shows around Toronto.
He subsequently headed to America during the Civil Rights movement era, where he was forced to deal with a significant amount of racial prejudice.
‘Ring King’ will show how Rocky ultimately managed to establish himself as one of the first black wrestlers to demand and receive a contract.
Currently, there is no word on whether Dwayne will be involved with the movie in any capacity.
Last month, Hiram Garcia – who works with Dwayne at Seven Bucks Productions – hailed his long-time friend’s incredible work ethic and described the wrestler-turned-actor as the “busiest guy in the world”.
Recalling how Dwayne was cast in 2017’s ‘Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle’, Hiram said: “Our agent had kind of flagged ‘Jumanji’ for us. He was like, ‘Hey, I have this script. It’s ‘Jumanji’. I think you should check it out. It feels like this is right up our alley.’
“It was a testament, especially to Dwayne, who’s the busiest guy in the world, but something about that night – I feel like we were maybe at a WrestleMania or something like that. I’m horrible with references in time, but I believe we were at an event like that. We had just landed … Dwayne read it that night. I read it that night, and it was just there. Right away on first reading, you just kind of got it.”
Bang Showbiz
